Fight to stop a third prison near Lancashire
Video report by ITV Granada Reports correspondent Mel Barham.
The people of living in Ulnes Walton near Leyland believed they'd WON their fight to stop a new jail being built alongside two others that are already there - Wymott and Garth prisons.
But, it seems, the Government isn't giving up.
The proposals by the Ministry of Justice would see a category C resettlement prison built on greenbelt land with a capacity for over 17 hundred inmates - housing low risk male offenders near the end of their sentences.
But the plans haven't been received well
The blueprint for this so called superprison was thrown out by Chorley council's planning committee in December 2021. The Ministry of Justice later launched an appeal against that decision
That sparked a public inquiry in 2022 chaired by an independent inspector.
In January 2023 residents found out that inspector recommemded the appeal be dismissed and the plans rejected
A letter published by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, stated they were "minded to" allow the development as long as road safety concerns were satisfactorily addressed.
The Ministry of Justice say
"The new prison in Chorley is critical to delivering the 20,000 extra places needed to protect the public by keeping offenders off the streets and turning them away from crime.
They have until the 2nd March to submit further evidence. If plans go ahead - its thought this would be the biggest prison site in the UK
Campaigners say the number of inmates would far exceed the number of residents of this small rural village
They're determined to make sure that does not happen.
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